Fantasy Article

Update: Atlanta

Dan Beaver

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Atlanta Motor Speedway had only two practice sessions before the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. One of these was run on Friday as drivers and teams split their time between qualification and race trim. The other was run on Saturday as they put the finishing touches on the car.

Ryan Newman was in search of his eighth career pole on this track. He has been locked in a tie with the legendary Buddy Baker since 2007 and came close only once since then. Newman qualified second for the 2010 Emory Healthcare 500 and finished eighth. In his last three attempts, he’s been relatively close again with a pair of fourth-place efforts and a seventh. Newman was fastest in the first practice session, but he missed the top spot in time trials by .081 seconds.

Kevin Harvick laid down the only lap north of 190 mph on Friday and took the pole for the QuikTrip 500. This is his second pole in 27 attempts at Atlanta and his first effort did not go entirely according to plan. He sustained late-race crash damage and finished 19th in August 2014. The next year, he qualified on the outside pole and finished second. His overall strength on this track in the past three years is such that he should anchor most fantasy rosters.

Jimmie Johnson was not as fortunate. He failed to advance to the final round of time trials and posted only the 18th-best speed. After that session, he was quick to point out that he was further back in each of the past two events before winning those races. Johnson had to take some risks along the way and is not a sure thing this week, but he should almost certainly earn some major place-differential points this week.

A whopping 34 of 39 drivers made long runs Saturday, and those average results are probably the most important tool in handicapping this week.

Newman tops this list. His first 10 laps on the track were completed with an average of 181.429. That combination of speed and durability over the long run makes him very attractive this week in light of his modest salary cap in most games.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. came to Atlanta last year after suffering a disappointing run in Daytona International Speedway. He finished second. This year, he also had a tough start to the season and posted the second-quickest 10-lap average in final practice. Earnhardt advanced to the final round of qualification and rolls off the grid 12th.

Jamie McMurray posted the third-quickest average speed in final practice with a 181.360. He drew some fire last week for the way he was drafting and was even credited with causing a "Big One" crash by some of the competitors. The best way to make them forget about that is to start them talking about his speed. McMurray qualified seventh and that should be a good omen, but he was third and second in his last two qualification efforts and finished outside the top 20 both times.

Ty Dillon was the quickest rookie in final practice. With an average of 179.797 mph during his first 10 laps on the track, the No. 13 Chevrolet was 10th on that leaderboard. He is determined to put his name at the forefront of the Rookie of the Year conversation and runs well on similarly-configured, 1.5-mile tracks.

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